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Wonderful Any-time Muffins Gluten-free

Amanda Barkey, from Costa Mesa, California, kindly sent me a recipe for muffins that she had adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe for "Healthy Morning Muffins"
Her recipe sounded wonderful and I specially liked that she said it was very 'changeable- friendly'.
Since I was eager to try her recipe and didn't have all the same ingredients I substituted with what I had .... and the resulting muffins were SOOOO GOOD ! I LOVE them !!!

Even my husband, who does not like muffins and eats gluten, loved these muffins and told me to make them often!

I will give you Amanda's recipe (which she graciously gave me permission to share) and my adaption as well ... Choose one or the other, mix and match or adapt to your own special needs ... I'm sure you will be as delighted with the result as I was.
Not only are these muffins delicious, they are as healthy and nourishing as you make them and a go-anywhere snack.

Just a thought -- if you make your own changes and are happy with the result, how about sharing your recipe here in the comment section ... Let's see how many variations we can come up with!

Amanda's Muffins (gluten-free, sugar free and low in fat)
  • nonstick cooking spray
  • 3/4 cup Almond flour (meal)
  • 3/4 cup Brown rice flour
  • 1/2 cup xylitol (and all natural alternative sweetner - its even good for your teeth)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (gluten-free)
  • 1/2 cup steel cut oats (gluten-free)
  • 1/4 cup flax seed
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
  • 4 medium carrots shredded
  • 1 medium ripe banana , mashed
  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, xylitol, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt until there are no lumps. Stir in oats, flax, and raisins. Add oil, egg, milk, carrots and banana and stir until blended.

  2. Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup batter , ( I use large ice-cream scoop). Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin come out clean, 23-25 minutes. Serve muffins warm or a room temperature. (To store, keep in an airtight container, up to 3 days) Enjoy them as they are with a pat of butter or a dollop of cream cheese for a decadent treat!
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My Version Muffins - (Julie's)
  • 1/2 cup ground almonds (or almond meal)
  • 1/3 cup ground sunflower seeds
  • 1/4 cup ground flax seeds
  • 3/4 cup brown rice flour
  • 1/4 cup white corn flour
  • 1/4 cup millet flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup grated carrots
  • 3 tablespoons oil  
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 small or one med/large banana
  1. Blend well together almond flour, ground sunflower sees, ground flax seeds, brown rice flour, white corn flour, millet flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, spices , sugars
  2. In blender put ripe bananas, oil, milk and eggs, and mix until smooth.
  3. Pour liquid into mixer bowl and then add the dry ingredients ... Mix on low until well blended
  4. Add sweetened dried cranberries and grated carrots.
  5. Divide batter between 12 sprayed muffin cups
  6. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 20-25 minutes until nicely browned.
Helpful tips - I cut down the time needed to mix up this recipe by pre-grating carrots and freezing them in 1/2 cup amounts in small zip-lock baggies. Also watch for grocery store specials on ripe bananas... Last time I got a bag of 24 bananas for 99 cents! Not one of them was overripe or bad. I put them -with peel on - in a plastic bag in the freezer and they are perfect to pull out when a recipe calls for bananas. It takes only a few minutes to thaw them enough to allow easy peeling and pre-frozen bananas mash so nicely.

19 comments:

  1. is that cooked brown rice that is being put in? this is the absolute of GF deliciousness with so many different flavors - thank you for sharing...

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  2. Rose.. I'm sorry, my typo .. brown rice flour.. thanks for pointing it out!

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  3. I am new to the gluten free cooking as my grandson in law has recently been diagnosed and needs everything gluten free. Since another of his allergy's in nuts what can I substitute for the almond meal and almond milk?
    Karen

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  4. Karen, the almond milk is easy to substitute, just use whatever you use in your other recipes that call for milk.... and the almond flour, maybe ground oats or use another flour - although maybe a little less than the amount of almond meal called for.

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  5. Karen- the original recipe is on the Martha Stewart website and is not gluten free or dairy free so you can check there for the recipe with more readily avalaible ingredients- it's the one I originally used and is very good if you have a gluten and dairy tolerable household!

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  6. Hloli!Wunderbare rezept...danke.Werde ich machen...Wie geht es dir?Schönes Wochenende,bussi.Lu.

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  7. Here's what this Mennonite girl did with the recipe...(my modifications)

    First, I doubled the recipe, so the following amounts are for a double recipe = 24 muffins.

    1 c. brown sugar (no xylitol or white sugar)
    1/8 t. nutmeg
    1/8 t. ginger
    2 t. cinnamon

    --for the flax seed, I used "ground flax seed"

    --no raisins or banana
    4 c. diced strawberries (these were fairly dry berries)

    I sprinkled chocolate chips on some
    Used either cupcake liners or greased tins with coconut oil (which works great, btw!)

    I've been looking for a gluten-free strawberry muffin recipe. This did pretty well. I'll definitely make it again!

    Email me at love2teach2day at gmail dot com if you want me to send a photo for the blog.

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  8. On the strawberry version I posted... I started with Amanda's recipe and modified from there.

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  9. I would love to have Julie's version made with oats. I love oats in muffins, but would also like the other ingredients in Julie's muffins.

    What can I replace with oats to still get a good rising, moist muffin?

    Thank you for the gluten free recipes!

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  10. Re - adding oats - you could try leaving out the white corn flour and add 1/2 cup gluten-free oat flakes instead and/or replace some of the brown rice flour with oat flour.

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  11. Thank you! i will try them with oats instead of the corn flour.

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  12. For the flours I used Ground Almonds, Barley Flour and Ground Flax only . I also added raw pumpkin seeds, raw coconut, raisins instead of cranberries and raw sunflower seeds at the end to mix in! They turned out lovely and yummy!

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  13. Julie...I can't find white corn flour but did find instant corn masa. Is it the same thing? The ingredient list is only corn and lye.
    Hope you will still get this comment despite the post being months old.
    Appreciate your recipes SO much!
    Heidi

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  14. White corn flour is hard to find ... I order mine online from Authentic Foods and their's is certified gluten-free.
    If you can find white cornmeal you can grind it into flour with your coffee grinder or try grinding the yellow cornmeal (or grits) - the flavour is stronger though.
    I have never used the instant corn masa flour you are referring to - but you could always try it,right?

    I have also made these muffins using millet flour instead of the white corn flour which is easy to find.

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  15. Gluten Free Almond Muffins With Fig Filling at http://www.aboutgrain.com/gluten-free-almond-muffins-with-fig-filling/

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  16. I am new to the whole gluten free thing, so maybe this is common knowledge but just wanted to post in case someone else is like me :) I followed the first recipe exactly but swapped out the brown rice flour for coconut flour... which was an epic fail - the muffins did not rise one bit so they were dry and cracked on the outside and still mushy on the inside. I'm off to buy brown rice flour :P

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    Replies
    1. Hi Cheryl... I'm sorry your muffins flopped but just so you know. Coconut flour is fairly new to being used in baking - it was believed it was impossible! Of course it isn't, however, if you want to swap coconut flour for another flour you need only a very small amount -- coconut flour needs much more liquid than other flours -- usually equal amount of liquid ... as 1/4 cup coconut flour to 1/4 cup extra liquid. It is safer to use recipes designed for coconut flour - as my brownie recipe. http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/2008/09/coconut-flour-brownies-gluten-free.html

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  17. I'm new to this gluten free kind of baking but want to try for my son-in-law's sake. So, we need gluten free and nut free (all kinds) and no sunflower seeds. Can you help?

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  18. Hello, Margaret . . . not sure if you have had a chance to look through our gluten free recipes http://mennonitegirlscancookglutenfree.blogspot.ca/ (listed under the recipe index on the sidebar)
    Julie has also posted her own GF flour blend here http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/2014/09/julies-flour-blend-gluten-free-and.html AND if your son-in-law is celiac, you may want to read is a celiac coming to dinner? http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/2008/11/is-celiac-coming-to-dinner.html
    Hope this helps. Questions are welcome.

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